Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>Ryan, You don't need a chuck to turn bowls. The 4 jaw scroll chuck wasn't even available to turners until around 1990. There are several ways to attach a blank to the lathe for hollowing. I assume that you have a faceplate. You can screw it directly to the bowl blank, or you can use a wasteblock with the faceplate. You can use double faced tape applied to the faceplate and attached to the blank. For either the wasteblock or the tape you must make sure that you have good mating of both surfaces as you would with any glue joint. You can use yellow glue or CA glue for the wasteblock. The best double faced tape I've found is Permacel, sold by several suppliers such as Craft Supplies. If you have any question you can e-mail me.

Wally

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Ryan D.

>For the wasteblock, do you mean to just attach a block to the faceplate and then just glue the block and the bottom of the bowl together?

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Ric Erkes

>Yes Ryan, that is what he means. Are you familiar with the technique of 'reverse turning' to finish off the bottom?

Ric

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Ryan D.

>Ric,

I probably do, but a short explaination will jumpstart my memory. I can remember how to do things, just not the terms, lol

Ryan

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>The best procedure is to mount the faceplate to what will be the top of the bowl. Rough turn the outside of the bowl, then true up the bottom to accept the wasteblock, making sure that both surfaces are trued up as for any glue joint. Remove the blank from the lathe and attach the wasteblock with medium CA glue or yellow glue. Attach the faceplate and proceed to turn. After the bowl is hollowed, sanded and finished, part it off the wasteblock using a parting tool along the glueline. When you've parted it down to a joint about the size of a nickle or smaller, just pop it of with the heel of your hand. Reverse the bowl to finish off the bottom and you have a bowl.

Wally

Wally

W.C. Turner

>This is where I have trouble, and my rims are sometimes not the same thickness all the way around. How do you ensure that the wasteblock is centered on the bottom?

Thanks,

W.C.

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck *LINK*

Darrell Feltmate

>Ryan

Take a look at my web site under "roughing a bowl." It will take you from start to finish without a chuck.


woodturnings by Darrell Feltmate

Re: centering waste block

Ron Sardo from PA

>I'm sure Wally has a better way, but the way I do it is leave the face plate on the bowl when I glue the waste block on the opposite side. When the glue dries round the waste block on the lathe. Then place the face plate on the waste block.

Re: Wally

John Lucas

>When I turn the foot of the bowl I leave the tenon a little long and slightly smaller than the wasteblock. Then I turn a rebate or mortise in the wasteblock to accept the tenon. It only needs to be a few millimeters deep because it's for alignment only. Making sure the bottom is flat is the hardest part. I usually hollow the middle of the divot sliglhtly and just insure the outer 3/8" or so is perfectly flat. Of course the bottom of the tenon on the bowl must be flat also.

Re: Wally

Glenn Hodges

>After you have trued up the bottom of your bowl to accept a waste block, glue the waste block on, let it dry, then mount the bowl back on the lathe (you have did not take the faceplate off the top of the bowl). True up the waste block, making sure it is flat or like John suggested to accept the faceplate. At this poing take a compass and find the center while the bowl is turning, and mark the size of the face plate with it. This is a good way to make sure the faceplate when attached to the bottom will be centered pretty good. Take the bowl off, place the faceplate on the bottom of the bowl where you have made your marks. Now you need some tools to take out the center. Hope this helps now go to it, and have fun.

Nashville, Georgia

Re: Wally

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>As others have said, I leave the faceplate/screw chuck on the blank, remount it after the glue block is on, turn on the lathe and mark the center of the glue block with a pencil. The mark is to bore a hole for the screw chuck that I use. For a faceplate, mark with a pencil about the diameter of the faceplate. Then remove the blank and remount the faceplate/screw chuck on the glue block.

Wally

Re: Turning Bowls Without a Chuck

Ric Erkes

>Ryan, you have received lots of good advice, but since every turner evolves their own techniques, I'll add a few more for you to dwell on.

To start, as Wally said mount the faceplate to the top of the bowl. Rough turn the majority, and then you need to make a decision. Is there enough wood to mount the faceplate directly on the bottom of the blank or do you need to add a wasteblock? Either way you need a flat bottom on your blank. Once you turn the bottom flat, place a board with 60 grit sandpaper across the bottom while it is turning. Stop the lathe, and the scrach marks will tell you if it is flat or not.

While the blank is turning, mark the center with a pencil. Take a nail and lightly tap a dimple in the center mark.

If you do not need a wasteblock, mount the faceplate on the bottom and proceed. I'll tell you my centering technique in a minute, since it is the same with a wasteblock.

If you need a wasteblock. Drill a hole, (the size of your nail) into the wasteblock. Add appropriate glue to wasteblock, protude the nail through the hole, and place the nail tip in the dimple in the blank bottom. Remove the nail, so as not to glue it in place. Once dry, remount the blank with the tailstock now in the nail hole of the wasteblock and true up the wasteblock. (If you had a chuck, you would be all set to put the wasteblock in your chuck.)

Without a chuck. (The others gave you great ideas, but here is mine) Drill a hole (same nail size) through a piece of wood larger than your lathe spindle. Mount this piece with the holes at the headstock and tailstock and turn this piece of wood into a dowel the exact diameter of your spindle diameter, which will also be the internal size of your faceplate.

Now to center the faceplate on your blank or wasteblock. Stick the nail through the dowel and into the wasteblock, or into the dimple of the blank. Slide the faceplate down over the dowel, screw it in place and it is centered. Save the dowel for the next time.

Again, there are lots of ways to part off the wasteblock, but I'll leave well enough alone for now.

Hope all these ideas help more than confuse.

Ric

Re: Centering the bowl

Fred L. - North Carolina

>Thanks for explaining your centering method. There are variations of this technique, but I really like yours.

FredL

Re: Centering the bowl

Ric Erkes

>Thanks Fred, one other thing. Instead of marking the center with a pencil, just bring up the tailstock. It marks it and puts the dimple in at the same time. I was thinking about the pencil comment and forgot about the tailstock.

Ric